Direct Mail

One of the goals of a direct-mail appeal should be a personal connection, says Dick Goldsmith, chairman of The Horah Group, a full-service direct-marketing agency. Appeals that refer to previous donations and unique ask strings based on previous donations can help add that personal connection. Using variable data is another way to connect with recipients, Goldsmith says. It can give a national organization the ability to, for example, overlay recipients’ geographic information into a direct-mail campaign to talk about how it’s helping people in the recipient’s local community. “If they can tell me that they help people who were hit by floods

For a mailing that comes through the mail looking rather small in its 4.5-inch-by-8-inch outer envelope, this campaign from the Servants of Mary has a slew of elements. Different ones, at that. First is the outer envelope, different enough in size from the usual No. 10s to get noticed. Stretched from end to end of the envelope’s face is a four-color photograph showing the silhouette of a person standing on top of a mountain, arms reaching up toward the sun as it breaks through the clouds. Above the address box is copy reading, “Celebrate Life.” Though small, the outer envelope shows some girth, packed as it

Lift notes and multiple poly windows are two direct-mail elements that, when done right, can boost response to a mailing. A lift note is “designed to be a more personal, intimate piece of communication,” says Steve Penn, chief executive officer and executive creative director at Penn Garritano Direct Response Marketing. Penn says most lift notes are “executive” sized (7-inch-by-10-inch) with “from the desk of,” giving it a more personal, one-on-one feel. Usually just a few paragraphs in length, lift notes should be signed by someone of high stature in the organization, and this person should be different than the letter signer. While

Nonprofit organizations face numerous challenges in today’s competitive environment, including limited operating budgets, particularly for marketing, and a flood of organizations vying for the public’s charitable dollars. Donors are extremely selective with their contributions and might only donate to one or two organizations annually that speak to their personal sentiments, interests and demographic.

Therefore, nonprofits can benefit from taking proactive measures to analyze the psychologies of their financial contributors and leverage this information to develop highly targeted marketing campaigns.

Here’s a good example of a simple mailing with strong branding. There’s no gloss or glitz or flashy graphics, just basic color branding. The WLIW21 logo in brown and light blue appears on each element, and this color scheme is used to highlight pull-out messages throughout the mailing. For example, on the face of the No. 10 outer next to a teaser announcing “New fall programs inside!” is an image of a brown, clip-art leaf. And in the top right corner on the first page of the two-page letter is a simple illustration of a flower, colored light blue, and below it, “Coming soon!”

This mailing by Colel Chabad, an umbrella philanthropy supporting a network of soup kitchens, day-care centers, dental and medical clinics, camp scholarships, senior centers and other social-welfare projects throughout Israel and the former Soviet Union, is a great example of jolting outer envelope design and copy that gets recipients inside. The No. 10 envelope is designed in black, red and white colors, with reverse type. The right half of the outer is white, its purity interrupted by vertical streaks of black encroaching from the envelope’s left side, which is designed as though it was haphazardly brushed black with a paint brush. A horizontal stroke of

Sometimes in direct mail, it’s not just what you say but how many different times and ways you say it that gets the message across to recipients. That’s not to say that a brief, well-written letter won’t do the trick, but when financially do-able, more elements (touch points) within a mailing — each one reiterating your message in a different way with a different graphical mix — can help break through the message-screening filter of most consumers/donors. This mailing by the International Rescue Committee does a great job of mixing simple and high-gloss elements, and reiterating its message in a variety of ways. To start,

It’s trending up, not down. I recently attended a parent’s meeting at my church to discuss future activities for my teenage son’s youth group. Now stick with me -- this actually addresses an important issue for all fundraisers. The youth minister in charge of the group was outlining what would be happening and casually said, “The kids want the annual calendar and notices about events sent to them by (snail) mail. So please look out for any church envelopes addressed to your son or daughter, and please pass them on.” I, the bored parent who was struggling to keep my eyes open, was instantly awakened by the

There’s a lot going on in this mailing from Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, but it’s safe to say it works for the organization, as I’ve seen this package or versions of it in the mail for a few years now. In last week’s “Direct Mail Spotlight,” I talked about the World Wildlife Fund’s use of tried-and-true response boosters, and Missionary Oblates employs quite a few in this campaign, as well. Time-sensitivity and both a freemium and premium offer are communicated on the 4-inch-by-9.5-inch outer envelope. One premium — “genuine Lourdes water” — is described, while the other — an Our Lady of Lourdes

The Vermont Foodbank is the only food bank in the state of Vermont. For years, CEO Deborah Flateman says, it had relied on volunteers to produce its acquisition and renewal mailings in-house. The pieces themselves were inexpensive, consisting mostly of a letter with the organization’s letterhead and simple reply elements.